Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-03-06
TIE. LABOR pRoBLEM.
A Retrospect Not FIattering-A Forecast
Not Optimistic.

| a RAtrOSDecG MOI EAAttbEiuk-1 OECCaoN
Not Optimistic.
To the Eii0 Of the Stasdug Register.
Two years ago the Forty-ninth Congress
came into being, and to-day that body, as
at present composed, expires by limitation.
During its continuance the history of the
country has been marked by ''hard
times" by labor riots, by the leaguing to-
pether of men Of toll, in the vain hope and
belief that Union was strength, as against
social oppression. Other leagues have
been made, also, whose objects we're large
ly permeated with treason, and hostility
to the generous people, and government,
with whom and under whose flag they had
found a home.
To these scarcely hidden dangers the
10th Congress, in its collective wisdom,
has not thought it necessary to give much
thought or attention. 1t is true there was
a committee to investigate the labor
troubles on the Gould System" and some
dallying over q National Arbitration
Bill, " and some jOckeying with an amend
ment to the Foreign Contract Labor Bilf'
fraud. But as to practical legislation for
the actual benefit, present or future OF
nine millions of tOiling men, or looking 10
their protection from the deadly cOmpetl-
ton of the cheap labor of the crOwdlng
hOrdes of the mi-barbarous populations
of Northern Europe, there has been none.
The immigration figures for 1886 show
that Tin spite of the fact that tends OF
thousands of men here are idle, with every
industrial wheel in OperatiOn) 3Go,OOO
people landed in this country, either 10
Join the great army of the idle, or to dis
place an equal number ofwOrkers, at lower
wages.
The same authority informs us that, I'M
der the stimulus of the boom" In iron,
and the present prosperity of the country,
an immigration of 700, 900 is promised iOr
the wear 1887. BOOmS in the United States
are, as the term INDICATES, spasmodlc ana
of limited duration, followed by ldleness,
panic and distress of the masses. when
4 the bottom fell out" of the last boom we
had the usual reduction OF time and wages,
the usual strikes and lOckOuts, the usnal
crop of Labor orators perambuiatlng the
country, advising the adoption Oh any
theory calculated TO make q bad AFFAIR
worse, and the unusual spectacle OF q Tor
eign orator advising a foreign audience oil
halt-savage people, in the heart oi Amer
lean civilization to throttle the law =
Then followed the slaughter .Ot the gal
liant Chicago police. Now it is plain to
any observing man that the present
''bOOm" is, and can be, only temporary.
Every iron works, glass house, nine ana
factory is steadily filling up the depleted
market, and will soon by Oyer-productlOn,
as in the post, he able to fill their ware
houses with Il stock of their various wares,
To he used rs a club with which to subtue
TO their sway the labor element, in the
new season of strikes and turmoil that is rs
sure to come us effect is sure To follow
cause. When that season comes, what are
tue people going to do with these hundreds
of thousands of poor and destitute people,
ignorant and almost barbaTOuS, VINO are
pouring into the country, who are not
needed rs lahOrerS, and for whom there Is
no place except by substitution for Others?
Will we permit them, under a delusl0n
that the United States is 4 poor mans
Paradise, To continue to fill the cOun-
try to overlooking, and then allow them
To starve, for want OF the employment they
have been told was so abundant? Will
we continue to let them, through their
low demands in wages, diSplace our native
born citizens, aud those already citizens
by naturalization? Or, by mere passive
ness, will we permit them to come in their
l%egiOns, to crowd our cities and swell the
membership Of the Socialist leagues, the
Groups of the Anarchist, or that large and
increasing, ~impccuniOuS, but uuclasSited
body, the men who ClamOr for an even
divide?n And when they have imbibcd
sufficient of the teachings of the number
less ''Orators" and "rcfOrmcrS' of the
Most, Spies, and Fielding type, to rise
in their immense strength to 'thrOttie
the law" will we then, if wcstill have the
ability 10 do so, NOW down our guests
with grape and canister, and the gatlinS
gun? As one decayed apple will, in time,
affect all those in contact with 1t, so has
the association of these foreigners with our
native Americans had an evil effect.
Many are ignorant and many more ut
the best see only and judge new tangled
theories at the surface, and this strength,
not contemplate, will he added TO 1.-THE
insidiOuS wileS OF fOreign influence against
which Washington sOlemnly warned the
country, though probably not in the sense
here indicated.
Who gains by foreign immigration in
excess Of our needs? The capitalist and
the man, or men, interested in cheap labor.
Who loses 10y the same cause?
Obviously the men whose labor is cheap
ened by the process. Who, in the future,
when Rebellion stalks with torch in hand,
and under the red flag of anarchy and the
commune, will then he the loser by our
carefully tostered immigration laws? Not
the man who has accumulated no property
through the national curse of an excessive
influx of foreign workers.
Does it make any difference TO an Amer
lean labOrer who has lost his place that an
alien might take ii at 4 lower price,
whether an alien come into the country
under a Contract" or of his own viola
ton? The result is the same. "WhO
would be free, themselves must strike the
blOw!'
The labor plank should be: mo more
foreign immigration, whether under con-
tract or free, until American labor RECEIVERS
from the staggering blow already received
from that source, and regains the respect
of capital lost thereby, and we will vote
for no candidate for President or Congress
not pledged to that end"
Grocer, ohio, March I, 81.